Scroll down to the bottom for the boat ramp fail video featured in the title image!
Even on the calmest day boat owners are hesitant to launch at the Kailua Beach Boat Ramp. We are blessed to have the Haulover Boat Ramp and Haulover Marine Center providing our area with so many options to launch boats. The Haulover Ramp features multiple ramps with piers to launch from and a small craft ramp for a PWC. The Haulover Marine Center nearby offers a huge dry storage facility. Compare this with the Kailua Ramp with its narrow ramp, no piers along side, terrible surface, and laughable slope.
Compare the 2 ramps in the videos below:
As one local resident puts it “The boat ramp is narrow. It’s slippery. There’s cracks all through it and it’s unprotected. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
To use this ramp you have to disengage your boat and trailer from the vehicle and basically walk it down the slippery ramp towards the water. You have to get into the water and you’re being rocked by waves while trying to launch your boat. Even the local government admits it; “I do agree there exists a dangerous situation at this ramp because of the holes in it and the integrity of the structure of the ramp itself” said one local official.
Local officials appear to be passing the buck, saying that their hands are tied because of the amount of permits needed from the state and federal government.
The ramp is the only place boaters can launch in Kailua.
Can you name a sketchier boat ramp?
The video below is a perfect example of the dangers of this ramp, a group is trying to launch their Boston Whaler, they have a tow strap keeping it connected to their vehicle and they’ve walked it down the ramp. The group is trying to get the right angle to get the boat off the trailer and floating, they’re having a heck of a time. They have one guy jumping up and down on the tongue, a man and woman trying to push the boat in, and a guy in the water.
They end up getting a few bystanders involved to help too, this boat ramp fail is such a dangerous situation because if the winch cable or tow strap snaps the boat could fall off. Or the strap or cable could really hurt if it gives way with that much tension on it. Frankly I’m not sure they ever got the boat launched! So if you use the Haulover Ramp and you wait in the long lines thank your lucky stars for things could be much worse.
Want some more Haulover Drama? Watch as this Sea Ray 450 loses its tender and the hilarity that ensues when they try and retrieve it:
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